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Wood Wall: Two Ways

I’ve had a lot of experience with creating wood walls in the recent months! We built a white paneled wall in our bedroom back in January, and then more recently I did a faux-weathered wood wall for my church. I don’t have many step-by-step pictures but I will do my best to fill in the blanks with words 🙂 In our bedroom, I was going for a more clean, modern look while still adding lots of texture and character. At church, we were going more for a rustic, Restoration Hardware-ish style. Here’s a run down of each!

White Wood Wall Supplies:

3/8″ thick plywood, cut to 6″ wide planks (you can get the plywood cut at Lowe’s or Home depot, or do it yourself if you have the right tools!)

Nail gun & 2 1/4″ long nails Saw (preferably a table saw)

White Paint (we used Ben Moore Chantilly Lace)

A nickel for a spacer

Quarter round for edges

Start by determining the lengths of each plank based on where the studs are. Each plank needs to be nailed into the all of the studs it crosses. We determined the lengths as we went because we were going for a random look. I also liked the look of visible gaps, so we used a nickel as a spacer to keep them as even as possible. (I took this nickel picture after the wall was done, but really we did this as we were attaching them to the wall before the pieces were painted.)

Continue this process of measuring, cutting, and nailing until you reach the the top. If you’re lucky, your last piece will fit in perfectly! A more likely situation is that you will need to rip the last board down to size. Once you get the last one in, you can start filling the wood holes with wood putty if you’re going for a very clean look (we did do this). Next a quick sanding of any splinters and rough putty spots. Now you’re ready to paint! It took me 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint to get the coverage I wanted. Lastly, add the corner round to the corners on each side. This will really clean up the edges and give you a more finished look. You can buy this pre-primed to cut down on your painting. I pre-painted this completely so I could avoid getting any white paint on our gray walls.

After the paint dries and the smell airs out (use Low- or No-VOC paint to cut down on fumes!) you’re ready to move back in! We were camping out in our living room during this whole process (aka 4 nights) and though the “camp out” had us feeling like kids again the first couple nights, we were sure ready to sleep in our bed again by the end!! PS- click here for a tutorial on those lamps!

Faux Weathered-Wood Wall Supplies:

Cedar 1×6’s

Various Stain Colors

Nail Gun

Saw

The process for this type of wood wall is a little different. The first difference is that you need to pre-stain your cedar (note: it is important to use a wood species that is more resistant to warping, like cedar or oak. Oak is more expensive, which is why we went with cedar.). To get the weathered look, we went with a combination of Minwax’s Ebony, Classic Gray, and Espresso oil-based stains. We mixed the stains in different combinations and even used more than one color per board to get a more naturally-aged look. Wear gloves and clothes you don’t care about when using oil-based stains, as it’s hard to get it out of skin and clothes. We used the same process of measuring based on the location of our studs, then cutting and nailing to the wall in a random pattern. Visible gaps didn’t go well with the style we were going for this time, so we skipped the spacer. Like the white wood version, continue measuring, cutting, and nailing until the wall is completely filled! Be conscious of the spacing the various wood tones around so the wall looks balanced. Again, you will likely need to rip down the top layer to the correct size. We skipped the wood filler and the quarter round steps on this one since the nails blended in to the wood’s various tones and the raw edge lent itself to the look I was going for. Are any of you itching to add some wood wall to your life?? Now you have options! Either of these is a great way to add some architectural interest to your home.